Louisiana Purchase Vs French Revolution Essay

The foreign policy was a defensive reaction to perceived or legitimate threats from Europe. Between the dates 1789 to 1825, many foreign affairs occurred such as the xyz affairs, and Jay’s treaty, but two major foreign events that demonstrates how the United States policy was defensive are the Louisiana Purchase and the French Revolution. The Louisiana was a very important purchase with the growth ofthe United States.The purchase doubled the landmass, but there was more involved in the purchase. The Pinckney treaty had been allowing the United States to use the Mississippi River for trade.This treaty had been made with Spain, but then Spain signed the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso with France giving them the land. The United States saw this as a perceived threat to their trading industry. The Mid west Region of the United States depended on the Mississippi River to trade. This threat would dramatically damage the economy thus was perceived as major threat so Jefferson sought out to purchase the land. …show more content…
After losing the slave revolt in Haiti, France did not have a military base on the Atlantic Ocean. France was at war with England, so the lack of the military enforcement was an issue. Napoleon decided to sell all of Louisiana for not much more than what the Americans were going to pay for just New Orleans. Because of this, it can be argued that the Louisiana Purchase only happened because France needed to get rid of the land so that England wouldn’t get the land. However America was already planning on purchasing New Orleans for trading, so the Louisiana purchase focused more on the perceived threat of losing an important port rather than the land being offered because the French could not protect